Monday, October 28, 2013

Fall Sensory Box (BLT)


            I recently came across the concept of sensory boxes and fell in love with them! I’m still finding it pretty difficult to find age appropriate activities for my newly 1 year old, so these boxes are a Godsend if you ask me! There are a plethora of ideas for different types of sensory boxes online, including fall related ones, but I decided to keep ours simple. (Mostly because my husband just went back to work after this stupid government furlough nonsense, so needless to say we don’t have a lot of extra cash at the moment. Not that you need a lot, if any, to make sensory boxes.)
            Sensory boxes are a great addition to home school/tot school theme units or just for fun! I believe sensory play is important, especially for young toddlers and babies, since that is the main way they learn about the world around them: seeing, smelling, touching, hearing, and tasting. Plus, in my opinion, sensory activities can be a lot of fun! Who doesn’t enjoy finger painting or splashing in the water with a little one?
            Anyways, we just included gourds and faux leaves in our fall sensory box for Myka. As I mentioned, sensory boxes don’t have to be expensive and full of fancy stuff. Many times you might find that there are plenty of objects around your house you can use or “repurpose” to fit your needs. Since we live far away from family, Myka’s birthday presents came in the mail, so needless to say we had plenty of boxes to choose from. (Some people like using plastic trays/tubs instead of an actual box.) We purchased our gourds from Walmart for $4 or $5 for a bag of 5 and 2 bags of the leaves for $1 each at the Dollar Tree. (I have a feeling the Dollar Tree is going to be my new best friend soon.) Not bad.
"Hmm, what's in here?" 

            We probably didn’t pick a great time to introduce the box to Myka as she had just eaten and was still grumpy from waking up from her late afternoon nap. John tried to get her to touch the gourds and she started crying. :/ Oops. So we played with the leaves instead for awhile. She thought it was pretty funny when John pretended like he sneezed and blew the leaves all over her. Lol She did finally touch the gourds some, but still isn’t particularly crazy about them.


This activity helps to develop:
-hand-eye coordination
-fine motor development
-concentration (from figuring out the best way to pick items up)

And helps to teach:
-colors
-numbers
-like(similar) items

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